21 Oct Cameron County Asks Harlingen to Sign Drainage Deal Tied to Fluidstack Data Center

Cameron County is asking Harlingen to enter a drainage agreement that appears aimed at letting data center developer Fluidstack send stormwater into a city-owned canal, with Fluidstack paying to widen it. Harlingen’s city commission, which meets at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, is set to take up the request.

County commissioners voted 3-1 on Oct. 6 to back a proposal for the agreement, pending legal review. Precinct 4 Commissioner Gus Ruiz, who represents the Harlingen area, voted no.

The county is stepping in after Harlingen put Fluidstack on hold. At a packed Sept. 2 city meeting, Fluidstack offered to pay $7 million to widen the canal, which is 90 feet across and stretches roughly 4 miles between the airport and the Arroyo Colorado. In return, it asked for permission to discharge runoff from its data center into the canal. It also put $20 million on the table for the city’s infrastructure projects.

Commissioners voted unanimously to have Fluidstack hold a separate town hall before they decide. Commissioner Rene Perez said he would vote no regardless of the $20 million, telling the crowd residents don’t want a data center. Residents had spent months pushing back on data centers. Reports don’t say whether the town hall took place. A few days after the meeting, Fluidstack took the offer to the county, Mayor Norma Sepulveda told the Valley Morning Star.

Fluidstack has said it will build either way. Construction began last month on what the company calls a $4 billion first phase of a 1,100-acre campus on Harlingen’s northeastern outskirts, about 4 miles southwest of Rio Hondo.

At the county meeting, Commissioner David Garza urged approval, saying the county would pay nothing because an outside developer would cover the cost. He said the plan would double the canal to 180 feet and more than triple its capacity, from 1,344 to 4,250 cubic feet per second, easing flood risk around the airport, which flooded in March 2025. The city engineer said in September that Harlingen already has plans for a 190-foot canal.

Ruiz said he didn’t know what he was voting on. In his view, the proposed agreement has no attachments, cost estimates or funding sources, doesn’t divide responsibilities between the two governments and refers to a community benefits agreement he said no one on the court has seen. City Manager Gabriel Gonzalez also flagged the draft in the Harlingen agenda packet: the first use appears to be Fluidstack’s, he wrote, but future projects could use the canal too, and he wants that spelled out.

County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. told commissioners to approve it even though terms may still need work, and said the county is “indirectly involved” in projects like this one. He said several Harlingen commissioners had indicated they would vote against the request even after a town hall. He also said Fluidstack addresses residents’ worries about water and electricity through a closed-loop cooling system and by working on a deal with AEP plus on-site power.

Closed-loop cooling mainly speaks to water, though. At the Sept. 2 meeting, Fluidstack’s public affairs representative, Kate Franko, said each building would be filled once with about 400,000 gallons and wouldn’t draw water daily. The same trade-off that saves water can raise electricity use: Robert Ricci, a computing professor at the University of Utah, said in May that closed-loop systems generally save water at the cost of power in warm months. How much power this project would use depends on its design, and the public statements reported so far don’t give a figure. Franko said power would come from AEP-Texas.

Power is a touchy subject in Texas. Many residents have been skeptical of the grid since the February 2021 winter storm knocked out electricity for millions of people and left at least 246 dead, according to the state’s official count, and some customers were hit with sky-high electric bills. State leaders have taken notice. Gov. Greg Abbott ordered regulators in August to pause new data center approvals on the grid while they audit the projects’ power and water use. On Sept. 21, his office said, he directed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to halt all permits sought by data centers until ERCOT finishes its audit. ERCOT, the grid operator, said in an April preliminary forecast that peak demand could more than quadruple by 2032, driven by data centers and other large loads. It’s unclear whether the freeze affects Fluidstack’s campus, which is already under construction.

Eneus Energy is also proposing a data center campus of about 1,875 acres just outside city limits near the airport.